| |
|
Here's an exerpt from the issue of The Comics Journal #238.
In January 1952, Tove received a letter from the Associated Newspapers syndicate in England. They wanted her to create a Moomin strip aimed at their adult audience. Jansson's response:"When their proposal came and they said how many pounds I would get, i became very excited. Only six strips a week- I wouldn't have to make idiotic small illustrations, quarrel with troublesome writers or draw Mother's Day cards." (Evidently, her successful children's books didn't bring in the amount of money one would suspect) Jansson immediately signed a seven-year contract and began working on the strip while the syndicate searched for a paper in which to run it. During this period, Jansson actually travelled to London to take a two-week course in cartooning at the art department of the Associated Newspapers syndicate. After over two years of searching, the syndicate finally found the Moomins a home at the largest daily paper in England, the Evening News. While it may seem hard to believe now, at the time the syndicate poured a lot of time and money into schooling Jansson to be a professional comic strip artist and promoting the strip. When the strip launched on Sept. 20, 1954, a Moomin sat atop every Evening News delivery truck.
It may be hard for some people on this board to believe, but until I came to Barbelith I had never been introduced to Tove Jansson's Moomin stories. I know others in North America have heard of them, but very few people that I'm aware of.
It seems that though it ran for many years, it looks likely that only one English collection was ever produced. There were some samples in the Journal that I considered scanning to put on my blog, but I thought better of it.
Still, I was interested, and in my search I found a whole bunch of strips. If these are already readily available, or of no interest to anyone, sorry for taking up your time. |
|
|
